With half the film backdrop
set in a courtroom with intense drama, Director Miwa
Nishikawa’s, “Sway”, takes the viewer into the life of lead
character Takeru (played by Jo Odagiri). Takeru is a trendy
Tokyo photographer with a penchant for red leather pants and
a pervading coolness. Traveling which is the first theme at
the beginning of the film, Takeru receives a disturbing
message that his mother has passed away. Readying his items,
he takes to the road in his equally stylish retro car for
the funeral services.

Upon settling again in his old town of his youth, Takeru and
his father relive the animosity which has been buried in the
past and now have been exposed. Takeru’ s older brother,
Minoru (Teruyuki Kagawa) is a good natured sibling, who is a
polar opposite of the edgy Takeru. We find Minoru running a
dilapidated fuel station. Takeru views his return to what
the gas station ultimately symbolizes, monotony, routine and
the mundaneness he escaped. Despite the freedom looking
style he seems to exude, his roots are here. This is the
lesson he is faced with again. He cannot escape his past.

***

Sway is a heavily
character drive film, with Takeru taking the reigns, we are
completely subjected to his viewpoints. Through his past
history and his self revealing thoughts which cause us to
vacillate from the metropolitan life he now lives to the
simple life that the country and traditionalism inherently
carries. Through the catalyst of his older brother Minoru,
Takeru must come to grips with his ailing family life and
make straight his path. Strongly reflective, Sway is a film
that keeps you gripping to your chair with every passing
moment.

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per
second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate

Audio

Japanese Dolby Digital (2.0)

Subtitles

English, none

Features

Release Information:
Studio: Bandai Visual

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 1.78:1

Edition Details:
• Dual Layered DVD
• Making Of
• Trailers

DVD Release Date: February
23rd, 2007Keep Case

Chapters 18

Comments:

IMAGE:
This is a dual-layered DVD with the usual good quality progressive
transfer from Bandai Visual. The image is just a bit blurred and there
is some noise, but not enough to be distracting. The contrast is light
to moderate and I believe it is right, blacks are very good and even,
colors and the white balance are well adjusted and look very real to me.

The subtitles look fine to me, but sometimes it seems like a comma or a
dot are missing. But I think it is just an impression caused by trying
to keep the subtitles close to the original spoken dialogue.

SOUND:
The only sound available is a high quality 448 kbps 2.0 Dolby Surround
mix that probably can only be surpassed by its future uncompressed
version. This is not a very sound-busy movie, but a skilful job was done
here making everything well balanced. The voices are evident, the
background sound never becomes disturbing during the quieter moments,
and the occasional but quality eclectic soundtrack, sometimes jazzy
sometimes just a minimalist piano, is pristine and when present makes a
strong contribution to the movie climate. The stereo option here is
enough for a movie like this in my opinion and its quality is hard to
find even among the 5.1 mixes.

EXTRAS:
The only extras available are some trailers/teaser and a 15 min. making
of that looks very interesting but lacks English subtitles. You can
still enjoy it a bit and get an idea how the things were done just by
looking into it. Even without a pack of extras, this is a quality and
worthy release in my opinion.

Keep in mind that the movie itself is the greatest quality here, this is
the second one from Miwa Nishikawa, that was Kore-eda Hirokazu's
assistant director, and a strong psychological study of human nature and
modern society. I recommend!